Democrats publish rape allegation against Trump from 1993, White House denies it

The allegation

A woman who once competed in beauty pageants has told Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee that Donald Trump raped her in 1993. Il Messaggero describes her as a former Miss Switzerland candidate. According to her account, Trump had invited her to New York and Atlantic City to take part in the American Dream Pageant, and the assault took place in a room at the Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City, a property Trump owns. The alleged attack came after the two had spent time together with Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier. She described the attack in a series of interviews with the committee's Democratic members, and the Huffington Post first reported the account. Earlier accounts she gave to the media described heavy groping rather than rape, according to Il Messaggero. She also says Trump intimidated her right after the act and that threatening calls reached her in Switzerland urging her to stay silent. Trump's legal team has always denied every accusation.

The Democrats' report

The committee's Democrats released the account in a lengthy report published on Monday, 26 October 2026. The report calls for a special prosecutor to investigate Trump's ties to Epstein and describes the president as an active participant in Epstein's sexual abuse of young women in the mid-to-late 1990s. It acknowledges that Congress cannot appoint a special prosecutor itself, but argues for greater federal support for state and international investigations into Epstein's accomplices. The Democrats also want full access to the case files, which they say the law guarantees to Congress, and they demand an investigation into an alleged cover-up by the Justice Department. The report points to several known Epstein-related documents that do not appear in the Justice Department's public database.

Denials and political stakes

The White House says none of the accusations is true. The Huffington Post reports that the Democrats are gathering and checking testimony to see whether it could lead to legal action or a possible impeachment after the midterms. If Democrats regain the House in January, the Judiciary Committee would lead any impeachment proceeding, the outlet reports. The report also suggests Democrats would use their power to summon people to testify in order to build their case. Il Messaggero notes that the revelation comes a week before the 3 November midterm elections, and that Epstein had largely dropped out of the campaign, with voters more concerned about rising living costs.

What comes next

The midterm elections on 3 November will determine whether Democrats win back the House, the step that would give the Judiciary Committee the lead on any impeachment. Until then the claims remain allegations, denied by the White House and by Trump's legal team. The Democrats' stated aim is to verify the testimony and gather more evidence, and their call for a special prosecutor has no power of appointment behind it. Several of the Epstein documents the report cites are, in the Democrats' view, missing from the public record.